A Challenge
by Fatin Adolfina
Summary: The world is a boring place, what Noah needs is a challenge.


A Challenge

* * *

The world is a dull place.

Everywhere you go, everything is the same. The people, the buildings, the knowledge, the standards, the influences, everything is so boringly dull. However, no one saw it the way he say it. Maybe it's because he was at an age where everyone complains about everything. Maybe it's because he was rich and everything was handed to him on a diamond encrusted golden platter. Maybe it's because he's slowly going crazy as he's being forced to sit in this even more boring classroom with even more boring people talking about even more boring things. Seriously, who cared about a Beaver named Justin?

There was a time where he wondered where people get these crazy things to talk about. How is it that the media seems to care more about people who has a good body and a small talent like acting or singing when they should be focusing more on important things like the cure for cancer or the creation of a new nuclear weapon? Those were things people should be talking about, disease, death, war, conflict; anything would be more interesting than hearing girls squeal about a Twilight movie.

The boy sighed as he looked outside the window; he missed the days when he was with his two adopted brothers. They knew how to interested him, how to keep his attention and how to hold a good conversation. They made life interesting for him, even though they were the reason why he was stuck in this boarding school. Yes, a boarding school, **he **is in a boarding school for people of all ages in a place no one cares about when he should have been in a private school, learning the important things in life so he could one day take over his father's world wide company. He should be going over maps and strategies with his father, trying to better an already great company instead of sitting in a classroom listening to a boring teacher talk to boring people who weren't even listening.

God, this place was boring!

He hated it here, enough to demolish it the moment he graduated along with the other boring people in this school. If he could, he would start a fire in the chemistry lab and turn on all the gases and watch this school go up in flames!

"Mr. Johnson, can you answer this question on the board?"

He would let loose thousands of his father's best guard dogs into this school on the 'Mega Meat Monday' everyone loved so much and watched as the dogs devoured the students and the disgusting meat.

"That is incorrect, Mr. Johnson. Ms. Ware, please answer the question on the board."

He would lead the best and dumbest and deafest construction workers in the world and put a sign the said 'To be demolished NOW' on the school and watch as the idiots smash boulders and balls into this place as the peoples' screams fall to deaf ears, except his.

"That is wrong, Ms. Ware. Mr. Kaiba, can _**you**_ answer the question?"

The boy looked at the math equation at the board and scoffed, the problem was too easy for his brain to work.

2x+y= 27  
3y-x= 16

Solve for x and y

"The answer is X=5; Y=7"

The class laughed, they thought the boy answered wrong.

"That is correct."

The class went silent, and the day became boring again.

What he needed was a challenge. It was the challenges against his older adopted brother that made his days, that made him laugh, that made him want to live and be happy. He would challenge his older adopted brother to almost everything, eating, drinking, thinking, glaring, smiling, exercising, name it, and they've done it, within respectable limits. They were too young to challenge each other to adult things, but they've tried once, and never again. One can almost say that the boy has become obsessed with challenges, almost. If the boy ever heard you, he would challenge his father to the most painful way to get rid of you. The slutty, gossiping maids never stood a chance against him when it comes to controlling his father; the only one who could ever beat the boy was his older adopted brother.

"Teacher, I think Noah cheated on the question." A shrill, annoying voice said.

The accused boy, Noah, looked away from the window again to glare at the annoying girl. The girl shrilled a screech and backed down, as did anyone who wanted to agree with her.

Noah was no cheater, he was simply too smart for his young age. A prodigy, some might call him, and he liked it.

"Ms. Wang, Mr. Kaiba is an excellent student. He can answer any question I give to him, no matter how ridiculous. Mr. Kaiba, what is the nickname for California and what its capital?"

"The nickname for California is The Golden State, its capital is Sacramento." Noah said without looking from the window.

"Very good, Mr. Kaiba. You, on the other hand, have never answered a single question correct no matter how relevant it is to the class. For example, what is tangent of 90 degrees in a 45-45-90 right triangle?"

"What the hell?! We're not even learning that!" a boy protested

"I just taught it last week." The teacher replied.

No one spoke because no one knew the answer.

Noah wanted to laugh at their stupidity, but it was so boringly sad that he just sighed.

"My point exactly. Mr. Kaiba has done all his work _plus _some of yours, Ms. Wang. If anyone is cheating, it is most likely you."

"Hey, leave Vivian alone! You gave her a hard question!" the same boy protested again.

"Fine then, Ms. Wong, what is 2^3?"

More silence, how pathetic.

The girl, Vivian Wong, ran out of the classroom crying, claiming her father would sue this horrible school.

The teacher sighed and continued his lesson, which no one listened to. In fact, everyone started talking, complaining about the teacher. This was nothing new to Noah, it happened weekly, and that made it even more boring. After 5 minutes, the teacher would give up and leave the students to talk until class was over. The teachers here were very weak when it came to dealing with the students. If the kids were smart, they would start a riot and claim the school as their territory and do whatever they wanted. Then again, these were dumb, boring kids; Noah might just die of boredom if they did run the school.

A knock on the door interrupted and silenced everyone; the teacher got up from his desk and opened the door to reveal the principal with a little girl with glasses. The girl walked into the classroom and sat in the empty desk besides Noah, looking confident and ready to learn and educate. Noah spared the girl 2 seconds of his attention span before looking out the window again, another boring addition to the already boring school.

"Class, we have a new student. Her name is Rebecca Hawkins and she will with us for the remainder of the school year."

"If I'm lucky, I'll be here for less." Noah heard Rebecca whisper.

The teacher continued the ignored lesson and the day went back to normal, at least until the teacher asked Rebecca a question.

"Ms. Hawkins, what is tangent of 90 degrees in a 45-45-90 right triangle?"

Noah rolled his eyes; the teacher would not let the question go unanswered. Noah waited for the wrong answer so he could be the class genius again and answer it correctly.

"The answer is the square root of 2."

"Correct, thank you Ms. Hawkins." The teacher went back to the lesson.

Noah was almost shocked, but the question was an easy one. Anyone who paid attention in class would know the answer. But the fact that the girl _did_ answer the question left an impression of her in Noah's mind. He wondered how smart the girl really was; hopefully she could provide the entertainment that he needed. He ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and wrote a small question on it, folded the paper and passed it to her. The teacher saw, but he didn't care, he knew Noah was smart, rich and powerful enough to do whatever he pleased. The girl, however, raised an eyebrow at him as he looked out the window, faking innocence. Rebecca unfolded the paper and her eyebrow rose even higher.

_How smart are you?_

What kind of idiot asked that question?

Rebecca looked at Noah who was still looking out the window. Based on what she could see from him, she could guess that the guy was full of himself. She quickly wrote a response and passed it back before the teacher saw. Noah opened the note and almost laughed out loud.

**Smarter than you, why?**

The mere thought that this girl was smarter than him was ridiculous, but he liked her confidence, it made it all the more satisfying when he destroyed it. Noah ripped out a bigger piece of paper and wrote a math equation on it, it was a math class so if the teacher decided to be a good teacher and take it, all he would see would be numbers. He passed the paper to Rebecca and looked out the window, expecting her to take a while. Not even a minute passed when he got the paper back. He opened the paper and saw a long column of numbers; he skipped down to the bottom of the paper and saw the answered circled.

It was correct.

Noah smirked and glanced at the girl named Rebecca Hawkins as she was writing notes. He couldn't help but notice the tiny smirk of confidence on her face.

Interesting, it seems he found a new challenge.

* * *

The world hates him and he knows it.

This Rebecca girl was in his every class, being a model student and taking notes, while he sent problems and questions to her that she would always get right. Even in their computer class, they were given an assignment to create the perfect virtual place within a week. He had created a virtual _world;_ that was just how great he was. But this girl, this **Rebecca **pointed out each and every flaw of his world, reconstructed it and made her own in a single _day!_ It was almost irritating, but he figured he had been going easy on her; after all, he was just testing her to see how smart she was. There were subjects that she wasn't good at too, like art and music, but the problem was that he was bad at them too. She was practically his equal, but he wouldn't admit it. But he wouldn't deny how smart she was, she could have been a female version of himself, except with long blond hair in pony tails with freckles and glasses. She wasn't too bad looking, but her attitude pushed all the guys away, except Noah, but he wasn't interested in her in that way.

But boring people love to gossip and spread rumors, so now everyone thinks Noah is trying to get Rebecca's attention so he can asker her out or something like that. He didn't pay much attention to the rumors, but when he did, they were so messed up that he doesn't understand them. Rebecca finds them funny, though Noah is unsure whether or not she believes them, but she likes to say things that make them sound like the rumors are true. Now **that **irritated him, and it makes him want nothing more than to show that girl her place.

"Hey Noah, can I talk to you?"

Speak of the devil.

Noah looked at Rebecca with a bored look, hoping she would get the message to go away. She didn't, and was staring at him, waiting for an answer. Noah said; Rebecca was the second person he knew that beat him at having patience, but that wasn't that important right now.

"No, go away." Noah said as he got up from his seat and walked away.

Technically, it was lunchtime and the students were allowed to do what they wanted, but Noah wanted to stay in the classroom to enjoy the small peace and quiet he got until the next class. He never had a problem with people interrupting his peace until today. Noah could hear Rebecca's footsteps fall behind his and he walked faster, wishing to loose the girl as quickly as possible so he could get back to his peaceful lunch. That wish was destroyed the moment he felt her hand grab his shirt, pulling him to a halt. He scowled; no one was allowed to touch him!

"Please, it's just a talk; I'll leave you lone the moment I get my answer." She spoke calmly, but he had a feeling that he didn't have a choice to not talk.

Sighing again, he allowed himself to be taken away back to the classroom where he was. He sat back down in his seat and waited for her to talk. Rebecca, satisfied that she got him to listen, sat in the chair next to him and gave him a smile. Noah thought that he would have been more shocked by the smile if he wasn't so annoyed.

"Why are you challenging me?" she asked.

It was a simple question, but he didn't want to answer it. He didn't want to talk at all, but there was only 1/3 of lunch left, and he wanted to spend it in peace.

"Because you are the most interesting thing at this school."

There, he answered the question in a quick and nice manner, now will she leave him alone?

He noticed her blush before she got up from her seat and left the room. Noah sighed in relief that she was gone, now he could enjoy the rest of his lunch in peace.

* * *

The world is getting weirder and weirder each day.

A month after their little 'talk' in the classroom, Rebecca has been looking at him strange. Not 'what is wrong with you' strange, but 'what is wrong with _me_' strange. Within that month, Rebecca and Noah had gotten to know each other a bit more, although, it was unwillingly for Noah. But he meant what he said; she was the most interesting thing here. She told him about how her father was an archeologist and how she had traveled to many different places with him. She told him how she got to meet important people, or at least, important by Noah's standards. She even told him how she got to learn different languages. Noah was impressed, but the only reason why he knows all of this know was because he had challenged her to see who had the better life. Once again, Rebecca had beaten him. He may have been richer, but he didn't have the opportunity to do the things Rebecca did. He thought that he had gotten to understand her a bit more, but now he was more confused than ever about what she was thinking.

Every now and then, Noah would catch the girl looking at him in the middle of class and wouldn't stop until either he looked at her or the teacher called on her to answer the question. He wondered if she was sick many times, mainly when she would answer the questions _**wrong**_, but he didn't pry; this only meant that she had something off in her life. Maybe her father was in trouble or maybe he's in the hospital. He didn't really care, but then again, he was very insensitive to his family. He guessed that within a week or so, she would get better and back on her feet with that challenging look in her eyes.

This is what he thought last month, but now, it seems that Rebecca Hawkins is getting worse. She avoided him, ignored his questions and sat in a different seat away from him. But she still looked at him when she thought that he couldn't see her. Noah wondered what was going on. His challenges were going unanswered and his days were becoming even more boring than they were before. It was sad, but he can almost say that he missed Rebecca's company, her wit and confidence made the days more fun than they were since he was forced to go to this boarding school filled with boring people. Though he was ashamed to admit it, he liked Rebecca, she was probably the only person that he truly liked passed a family sense.

Noah glanced at Rebecca from across the room as she talked with another girl about the assignment. He silently hoped that whatever she was going through would pass so they can be together again.

But only in a friendly sense, he didn't like her like that.

* * *

The world lives to make his life miserable.

Realizing that he liked Rebecca, Noah tried to put in more of an effort to make her feel better, as a friend. He tried talking to her more, but she would just nod or shake her head. He tried spending more time with her, but she would always be with annoying, gossiping girls and he couldn't stand it. He even tried to tell the teacher so they can help, but being useless as they are, did nothing. Noah wasn't educated in the ways of pleasing a woman, but he knew that at least trying to help was a good thing in the female mindset. But he couldn't continue this just to have his efforts be ignored, he was Noah Kaiba! No one ignored him, he did the ignoring.

But in a way, he was grateful for being ignored, because now he knows the reason for Rebecca's behavior.

Early one morning, Noah had tried to talk to Rebecca before class began and students started coming in. he had walked up behind her and was about to speak until he saw what was in her hand. It was a letter, a love letter to be more precise. He didn't want to believe it, but he could read the words over her shoulder before she put it away. There was no name, but by the way Rebecca blushed, she must have known who it was. Noah was actually disappointed, _**this**_ was the reason that Rebecca ignored and avoided him? It made sense in a way. The rumors going around made them out to be a couple, so maybe Rebecca wanted to avoid him to prove to the guy in the letter that the rumors were false. It made sense, but it infuriated him nonetheless.

He lost the only person he was willing to call a friend because of a _**guy?!**_

If that didn't hurt Noah's pride then he was officially a girl. How the hell was he supposed to get over that? He was rich enough to buy whatever he wanted in the world, jewels, cars, buildings, people, woman and friends. But he could never buy a real friend like Rebecca, despite that fact that most of the time that he was just using her to feed his obsession for challenges. Noah never really had a real friend, but he was smart enough to know that no one was this upset over losing a friend of the opposite sex unless they had some other feelings that friendship for them, at least, that's what he's learned from all the fictional movies he has seen.

It was weird, but based on his logic; he cared about Rebecca as more than a friend and was hurt and jealous that another man was trying to claim her as their own. Personally, it didn't make any sense to him, but he couldn't argue against his logic.

Now, how was he going to tell this to Rebecca without her never wanting to see him again?

* * *

The world is mocking him for his stupidity.

Another 2 months have passed since he realized his new feelings for Rebecca and he was currently sitting besides her bed in the infirmary. She had bruises all over her body, but other than that, she was okay. Right now they were playing a new card game while the nurse was getting Rebecca some pain killers. Though he was smiling and laughing, Noah was feeling guilty. It was his fault that she ended up here, and if he could, he would go back in time and stop this from happening.

It was a month after he discovered his feelings that it happened. Rebecca had received a letter telling her to meet her secret admirer after school in the school's garden. It was the perfect place for anyone to confess their feelings, and Noah didn't want it to happen. He was so anxious and angry that day that he earned himself detention, a rare thing for him indeed. If he had missed it, the school would call his father, and **that **he couldn't let happen. So he went to detention, accepting defeat for the first time in his life as he watched Rebecca going to the garden through the window.

Later, after he had served an unreasonable 2 hours of detention, he headed to the garden, hoping that the guy stood Rebecca up. What he didn't expect to see was Rebecca on the ground, bleeding and beaten and he glasses broken next to her. He immediately carried her to the infirmary and the nurse took care of her. That entire night, he couldn't stop thinking about Rebecca, how her pretty face was covered in bruises and twisted in pain. He couldn't forgive himself for letting that happen. He should have been there, despite the consequences. Who cares if his father found out, he couldn't do anything about it. Noah was more worried that Rebecca would close up and refuse to talk to him after what happened, and he wouldn't blame her. Noah would never talk to himself either if that happened to him.

The next day, Noah skipped his classes to go see her and to his relief, Rebecca woke up and told him everything. She told him about how she had thought _Noah _was the one who sent her the love letters, how she didn't know how to act around him, how the letter was challenging her to keep her distance from him, and finally, what happened in the garden.

It was a trap, that much he concluded by himself, but the shocking part was hearing who was in charge of it all. Vivian Wong, together with 14 other girls, ambushed Rebecca and beaten her. Rebecca didn't know why and neither did Noah, but he knew that if he had been there, this would not have happened to her. He should have known that it wasn't a guy who sent her the letters, after looking at it close enough, it was too pretty to be a guy's hand writing, or at least a straight guy's. Plus all of the guys in the school have made it clear that they didn't like Rebecca, so he had no one to blame but himself for letting this happen.

Now, as he sits next to her, watching her go to sleep because of the medicine, he wonders if he should still tell her his feelings. Especially now since she probably won't remember, if he's lucky, maybe she'll think it was all a dream.

"Rebecca." Noah said.

She hummed, indicating she was listening despite being half a sleep. She was trying to keep her eyes open, but was failing horribly. Noah laughed to himself, he couldn't do it.

"Never mind, just go to sleep." He kindly commanded, and she quickly obeyed.

He watched as she slept with a small smile on his face, he couldn't tell her about his feelings when she couldn't understand them with a clear mind. Where would be the challenge in that?


End file.
